An under-used mechanic in board game designs is that of gift giving. The big problem with gift giving in the context of a game is how to incentivize it without turning it into a trade...

One idea is taken from the game Oasis whereby players offer up gifts from their own resources to other players. This is incentivized by receiving priority tokens, which dictate the turn order, from my understanding (I have not played the game myself). It isn't a direct trade, because while both parties have consented to their own half of the deal, the offering player has no control over which player accepts their gift, and therefore no control over what they get out of the deal.

This is a neat mechanic, and I think I could come up with some interesting ways of twisting it to fit my visions of what a good game should do. I think I'll give it a shot...

Sorry for the blah-level post. Been moving and my brain's a bit hectic. Thanks for reading anyway!